Showing results by narrator "Alex Kocman" in All Categories

Across the church, there is a rift between theology and missions. Bad theology produces bad missions, and bad missions fuel bad theology. We wrongly think that we must choose between making a global impact and thinking deeply about the things of God. But the relationship between theology and missions is symbiotic—one cannot exist without the other. They walk hand in hand.

Modern Christians face a crisis of love. In an age shaped by globalism and liberal individualism, the very meaning of love has been abstracted and detached from the concrete ties that give it substance. Our culture has replaced what R. R. Reno calls “the love society” with Karl Popper’s “open society,” a world that prizes boundless openness over rooted belonging. In the process, many evangelicals have adopted a theology of world mission that is passionate yet placeless—aspirational but rootless, detached from the real communities and covenants through which love is meant to work.

God’s Word never denies that dwelling in a fallen world is hard or pretends that any of us are promised a life free from suffering and trial. Quite the opposite. But it makes just as clear that the Almighty is neither shaken nor surprised by anything that befalls us. Lessons from a Job Season tells the story of one family’s experience with an intense set of trials, and how God helped them and taught them through those afflictions.

The Book of Philippians is one of the most quotable, stirring, and rousing segments of the New Testament. Yet when Paul the missionary and apostle wrote this manifesto while chained in Rome, did he merely intend for his readers to divvy it up into a handful of inspirational slogans? Or did he have a deeper purpose in mind for the church? Paul’s epistle to the Philippians sports many pivotal motifs—joy, suffering, humility, and encouragement. Underneath all these themes, Philippians is a book of mission.

In Karmic Christianity, E. D. Burns explains why the antidote to fear is not power but rather peace—God’s peace. The peace of Christ sets us free from anxiety arising from hardships and our inability to control our situations. Lasting peace is not grounded in subjective experience. Instead, Christ secures it for us by his death and resurrection.